Diagnosis
by VaticanCameos1210
Summary: John Watson is the new Doctor on the children's ward at St. Bartholomew hospital just when he starts to settle in he gets stuck with a particularly hard case that no one else can solve, when the child gets worse they call in Sherlock Holmes diagnosis extraordinaire and for John his whole life changes.
1. John

This is only an introductory chapter and focuses only on John the next chapter will focus purely on Sherlock.

This will probably become a Sherlock/John fic later on. so it will stay rated T until I bring in that pairing and then I'll up the rating.

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Chapter 1 – John

Dr. John Hamish Watson sat in his office in the paediatric ward of St. Barts hospital he'd only been working there six months after being forced to retire from the army. He'd had trouble finding a job at first but then and applied to so many places with no luck what so ever then along came St. Barts. He never thought he'd have to work in a children's ward but he was rather enjoying it, although sometimes it was hard to work out what exactly what was wrong with the child but right now this was the right place for John. He was happy surrounded by the dolphin and tropical fish covered walls.

It was lively place filled with the voices of children recovering and their happy parents sometimes though it could be filled with the darkness of someone taken before they're time. The children's ward was a strange place there was never really an in between and doctors had to be strong enough to cope with the hardships of dying children.

John though as an army doctor had seen his fair share of horrible deaths and had a firm but loving way with the children. Sometimes you'd get particularly naughty ones such as Jamie who would escape any chance he got; Jamie was surprisingly energetic for a boy who'd had his appendix out a few days ago. Then there were the lovely nurses who were mostly women, there were only two men in the whole department John and another nurse. They always greeted john with a happy smile and a "hello Doctor Watson" every morning.

John was sitting in his office for a reason they had gotten a patient in today, he was a young ten year old boy named James with sever breathing problems at first they went for the easy option of undiscovered severe asthma. It wasn't asthma and they'd performed every test known to man on the child and they just couldn't figure it out. It seemed like an impossible disease and the whole department was stumped and the child was only getting worse, soon they'd have to put James on a ventilator to help him breath or else he was going to die.

John walked into James's private room; both his parents were solicitors and wanted only the best for their dying son. James smiled up at John for a dying boy he sure looked happy "hi Doctor Watson anything new to tell me?" James asked but he was mainly asking for his parents who were staring solemnly at John "I want to perform a Lung biopsy on your son, the biopsy will allow us to discover what is causing the severe breathing problems so that we can treat your son"

"No"

"Why not the procedure is relatively safe"

"Doctor Watson we have decided that it's not in our sons best interest to have the biopsy, we would rather have him pass on in peace that bleed out on the operating table" she gave John a scathing glare as if her choice should be obvious to him, as if he should agree with her didn't she understand that she was killing a boy who could be saved. John was fuming it took everything he had to leave the room without hitting the women.

"What the fuck does that woman think she's doing" John roared at one of the nurses on his tea brake "John if the family doesn't want the biopsy there's nothing you can do"

"They're killing a child who could be perfectly healthy"

"John you don't know that he could be incredibly sick"

"exactly we don't know how could she not want to know how could that idiot not even want to try and save the boy" John slammed his cup of tea down on to the table the boiling liquid spilling out and burning his hand "ahh bugger" he shouted and shoved his hand under the ice cold tap next to him, "John you have to try to understand this woman just doesn't want her child to die alone on the operating table surrounded by strangers"

"I know, I know I just don't want to waste a life that never truly had the chance to live"

"I know John" and the nurse turned away returning to her work and John sighed there just had to be some way to get the boy the biopsy.  
John sighed as he walked into James's room the next morning, the boy had been put on the ventilator over night and no longer opened his eyes. The mother stroked the sons head and the father paced at the end of the bed. John knocked gently and walked in to check on the boy "this is your last chance you know by tomorrow the boy will be to sick, please get the biopsy give us a chance to treat him" the mother looked at him for what seemed like forever and ran a hand through her un-brushed hair and said "okay".

James was only In surgery for thirty minutes and John rushed the analysis of the lung tissue, John had to save this one he hadn't lost a patient in this hospital yet and he wasn't about to start now.

John walked in to James's room for what he hoped would be one of the last times to give back the lab results to the family "He had a very extreme Lung infection, we've put him on Corticosteroids to reduce lung inflammation and some antimicrobial medicine to kill the bacteria causing the infection. I've also been told to inform you that your sons case is extremely rare and that the conventional methods may not works so I'm afraid you just have to pray and hope for the best" John gave the mother a gentle smile and turned to leave "Doctor Watson thank you"

"There's no need for thanks I do this all the time" and with that John turned and left.

In a few weeks James was well enough to go home he smiled and hugged John thanking him for saving his life, and John felt happy as the boy left knowing that he had helped to save and protect another child's life.

This was six months and 4 days before John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes and the infamous case that brought the two together.


	2. Sherlock

Heres Sherlock's introduction enjoy. I took it down for some additional editing :)

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Chapter 2 – Sherlock

Sherlock was good seeing things that other people didn't see such as the short fat bald man with the nicorette patches had been smoking just a few minutes earlier. He was obviously not trying to quit smoking but Sherlock felt that the quitting was probably just forced upon the man by his equally ugly and fat wife. Sherlock of course was obviously not standing right next to the man otherwise the deduction would be just too easy. The man was far enough away that Sherlock could not smell the smoke but could see the excited tremor in his hands and the slight sprinkling of ash on his shoes. Sherlock began to wonder how oblivious this wife of his must have been to miss all the signs of the fat mans fraud. Sherlock just rose to inform her of her husband's lies when his wrist was grabbed and he was tugged round to face Sarah the hospital manager "Sherlock you should be in A&E helping them with overflow, its Friday night and its pretty busy over there"

"why should I help I deal in Diagnosis not in drunks and broken arms" Sherlock gave her the look that he gives every idiot who had tried to force him to work in A&E, there was no way this woman would ever get him to go there he would have preferred having sex with the fat mans ugly wife over ever setting one pinkie toe in A&E.

It only took twenty minutes for Sherlock to appear in A&E Sarah had been very persuasive and even promised him his own bench down in pathology, he could run all the crazy tests he liked so long as he turned up here and did two hours in A&E every Friday night. Sherlock figured he had gained more out of this bargain than she had. Boy was he wrong.

It only took Sherlock ten minutes to storm out of A&E there was no way he was going back there after that drunk man had touched his arse and asked if he'd "like something to fill his hole" Sherlock was so horrified that he may have _accidentally _broken that guys wrist. Sherlock smiled as he walked towards the hospitals labs snapping the drunk guys wrist had been great he just had to hide out here until the storm had blown over, and anyway the broken wrist could have come from the fact the man was heavily inebriated so he could get off scot free, wouldn't that be wonderful.

Sherlock stared at the red splodge of blood under the microscope the guy had aids his T-cell count was in single digits they needed to get him some medication quickly. He'd tell that tall skinny lady when she came in to try and convince him to move away from the microscope. Then suddenly Sherlock felt a hand on his shoulder, there stood Sarah red faced and fuming "you broke a man's arm Sherlock" she shouted

"actually I think you'll find it was only his wrist and he very much deserved what he got"

"I don't care what he did to you; you know you are not allowed to treat patients like that"

"I told you Sarah I deal in diagnosis and I want nothing to do with A&E I don't like patient care and I don't like patients full stop."

"Well Sherlock the man has asked that you be removed from St. Pancreas Hospital and I'm afraid we're going to have to oblige. You're too much trouble Sherlock we can't keep you here any longer"

"well what am I supposed to do?"

"your brother stepped.."

"my brother?" Sherlock's face turned into a grimace

"yes he's arranged for you to transfer to St. Bart's"

"I refuse"

"you can't refuse Sherlock you may be an excellent doctor but your more trouble than your worth and no other hospital will take you"

"fine when do I start at that god forsaken place?"

"next week, goodbye Sherlock I hope we don't meet again soon" and with that Sarah turned and left the lab and Sherlock quickly gathered up his things and left that horrid hospital once and for all.

Sherlock stood in the lobby of St. Bart's waiting for some sort of escort to his office but he was getting more and more impatient. He began walking through the hospital maybe he could find the pathology department and he could begin analyzing some of the samples of pigs blood he had in his brief case. This was just not to be Sherlock got stopped by some short woman with pale skin and blonde ringlets named Marie, this girl guided him to this tiny box that was going to be his office. There was no way Sherlock could stay in this horrible place his office was to small and everything was just wrong, they hadn't even positioned him near the pathology department he would have to walk all the way to the other side of the building to get any of his research done. This was exactly why he never took gifts from Mycroft they were always absolutely terrible and of no interest to him.

Sherlock honestly could not wait to get out of this horrible place.

This was two weeks before Sherlock Holmes met John Watson on the case that brought them both together.

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Thanks a lot for reading. leave me a review if you want :)


	3. A Crash

Here's the next chapter this ones to make up for the fact I won't be writing at all tomorrow so enjoy. I bumped up the rating too because of language which will probably gradually get worse.

sorry I took the chapter down for some additional editing that I didn't do before I posted.

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Chapter 3

John Watson was attempting to make rounds but every time he walked into the room he was mobbed by children. If they weren't trying to attach themselves to his body they were incessantly asking him questions like "why he was shorter than the other guy?" and "will you play with me?" it was unbelievably tiring. John was performing these rounds when they brought the girl in she was fifteen and experiencing severe chest pains. The girls name was Amy she had poker straight brown hair, green eyes and a nose that was a bit too big for her face. John had her moved to a private room because she was in almost constant pain and he didn't need any of the younger ones scared, this girl was the biggest mystery John had ever been handed and he needed to solve it quickly because Amy's chest pains were spreading quickly throughout her body.

Sherlock smiled as he analysed the blood sample taken from the pig its T-cells were attacking the body's own white blood cells, it was the strangest thing and it interested Sherlock greatly it was simply fascinating. Sherlock was just removing his rubber gloves when that girl who helped him experiment on bodies in the morgue walked in "Sherlock they need your help upstairs with a fifteen year old girl"

"Look um what's your name again?"

"Molly"

"Look Molly would you mind telling them I'm extremely busy and that if they want me to take the case they'll have to give me proof that its worth taking"

"But doctor..." he cut her off

"I won't come up but instead why don't you get me the patients chart and I'll have a look at it down here" Sherlock said hoping to end this futile conversation and just as he'd hoped Molly rushed out of the room, she had probably gone to get the girls chart for him and he wondered if this case would be interesting enough to even tempt him to leave the laboratory.

John looked worriedly over Amy's charts she was getting worse and no one could diagnose her and that made it impossible to treat her. John was beginning to wonder if he should just start testing medication on her to see if she improves but a niggling thought told him that was a bad idea. John turned his head when he heard a gentle knocking on his office door, the pretty girl who worked down in the labs stood there what was her name again Marie, Mildred, Molly ah yes that was it "Hi Molly what can I do for you today?" he smiled gently up at her and signalled her to enter.

"Doctor Watson I was wondering if I could have Amy's charts Doctor Holmes would like to see them before he comes up"

"uh yeah sure but I'll need them back no later than tomorrow morning for when I meet with the girl's parents"

"Yes of course, thanks a lot Doctor Watson" and she reached across and took the charts from him

"I'll see you soon...oh wait will I be seeing this Doctor Holmes tomorrow?"

"maybe if he takes the case" and with that she was gone back down into the labs no doubt so that she could speak to the mysterious Doctor Holmes, from what John had heard from the few doctors who had worked with him he was a fantastic doctor but a right royal pain in the arse to work with. John was rather looking forward to meeting this man, he'd always enjoyed a good challenge and he was pretty sure that was exactly what this Holmes character would provide.

Sherlock glanced at the girls chart, chest pains bah there must have been some simple minded doctors up in paediatrics these days. It had to be heart palpitations or something equally mundane. He read further down and slowly became more and more intrigued the pages were covered in additional notes from the girl's doctor and he obviously was not the idiot he first seemed to be. Sherlock would take the case if only to meet the doctor behind these interesting little notes.

The next morning John stood impatiently waiting for his chart this was an incredibly important meeting between him and the child's parents, he couldn't have this Holmes guy jeopardising this girl's life or his professional reputation no matter how much he was looking forward to meeting the mystery doctor.

Sherlock sat in the lab yet again staring down into the microscope only to discover that he needed to get new samples of the pig's blood. Sometimes life was so dull Sherlock got up to leave just as he saw that girls chart on the table next to him wasn't there something he was meant to do with that chart. Sherlock stared at it willing the chart to tell him the answer "doctor Holmes what are you doing?".

John Watson had now begun pacing this was getting more and more stressful. He was already ten minutes late and had asked one of the nurses to lie to the patients parents for him. Shit if that chart didn't turn up soon he was going to be digging his own grave.

Molly stood behind Sherlock her mouth hanging open "you need to take that up to Doctor Watson on the children's ward right away" Sherlock sighed that was what he'd forgotten. The mystery notes doctor "of course Molly right away" he rushed out of the room towards paediatrics with his lab coat billowing behind him.

John was starting to panic even more he could hear the parents arguing with the nurse that he'd sent to delay them and realized that he was going have to go in and say he'd lost Amy's chart. John Watson stepped away from the wall and began walking towards the door but before he could reach it someone ran straight into him knocking him onto his back.

Sherlock Holmes fell on top of the man he'd just ran straight into and after laying completely still with the smaller man groaning in pain underneath him, he spotted a name tag Dr. perfect just the man he was looking for.

Johns head felt like it had cracked open, the pounding resonated through his brain and he felt a weight on top of him so he couldn't even get up. He opened his eyes to see a handsome pale stranger looking down at him excitedly "Doctor Watson?"

"Yes?" he said groggily

"I'm Doctor Sherlock Holmes and I have what you're looking for"

"you better mean my missing chart" Johns attempt at sounding threatening fell completely flat as Sherlock hoisted him up from the ground

"fortunately I do, but I'm also here to say I've taken the case and I'd like to join you in meeting the girl's parents"

"yeah sure" John wished he could have taken that back because somehow he knew he just knew that this was a terrible idea. Oh holy shit this was not going to end well.

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I churned this out at 2 in the morning and have only now got back to the chapter to make corrections.

leave me a review :)


	4. Final Diagnosis

Here's the next chapter I hope you enjoy :) I want to say thanks to everyone who has reviewed and put this story in their favorites or alerted it or whatever. you guys are the coolest ever and I wish I could thank you personally.

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Chapter 4

Sherlock was bored they'd been talking to the dying girls parents for half an hour already. He wanted to get to the diagnosing but every time he tried to move the other doctor would glare at him, forcing him to remain seated. He'd completely lost track of the conversation and was instead staring out the window watching people rush about busying themselves with other things. Sherlock had receded so far into his own head that he didn't hear Doctor Watson calling for him. Then suddenly the other doctors hand appeared in front of his face "what?" he practically snarled at the other doctor

"Doctor Holmes Mr and Mrs. Dawson were wondering what you thought of Amy's symptoms?" the doctor smiled but one look at his eyes told Sherlock he was in deep trouble. Sherlock walked over to the sedated girl's bedside "well I haven't seen her before today but from Doctor Watson's extensive notes we can rule out most of the simple explanations. You're her parents has she experienced chest pains before?" he glanced quickly over to the parents and then returned to looking at the girl.

"No never she would have told us" the mother said. Sherlock pulled the blanket covering the sleeping girl back and began lifting up her top "excuse me doctor what do you think you're doing?" the mother was staring at him as if he was doing something horrible. He ignored her and continued what he was doing "Doctor Watson come here"

"Those weren't there before" raised lumps covered the girl's chest.

"Oh god" the husband stood there and stared at his daughter

"Doctor Watson tell me you know what's wrong with her?" the mother had started weeping. Sherlock stayed silent and waited for him to answer her "I have to do some more research but I promise that I will do everything I can to help your daughter"

"Thank you Doctor" she said and then Doctor Watson left the room and Sherlock quickly followed.

Sherlock lounged in the visitor chair in Doctor Watson's office while he furiously scanned through medical text books "any ideas yet Doctor Watson?"

"You can call me John and no there's nothing that really matches"

"Then you can call me Sherlock and you must not be looking hard enough"

"Well maybe you should try actually helping me instead of sitting there and drinking my tea" John glared at him and Sherlock smiled back "I am helping you just don't realize it yet"

"Sherlock you better not be keeping what's wrong with the girl from me if you are you need to tell me now" John said sternly

"I don't know anything here pass me one of those books I'll read though it"

"Fine" John threw him a book with a green cover and bold gold lettering and Sherlock opened it and began to read.

It was just past twelve and John Watson's eyes were beginning to close he'd been here since seven this morning and his energy reserves were dwindling fast "you can go to sleep you know"

"Huh?"

"Go to sleep I'll wake you up if I need you"

"oh okay are you sure?" he asked Sherlock hoping to god that he said yes

"yes I would find it easier to concentrate without the sound of your breathing" Sherlock said without even glancing up from his book.

John left quickly not bothering to answer Sherlock frowning as he went one minute Sherlock couldn't take his eyes of him and the next he'd rather look at a book. Sherlock was some sort of enigma John could never tell what he was thinking. Though to be fair to him he'd only spent a day with the strange man maybe over time John would figure him out. Right now though John needed to figure out what was wrong with Amy and although Sherlock was meant to be this great doctor he didn't seem to be helping much.

Sherlock searched through John's desk he knew that John was an army doctor and was only working in this job because he'd had no other option. There had to be more though and Sherlock was determined to find out. He already had a good idea of what the girl had but he needed to book her in for the right tests to confirm his suspicions. He was slowly realising that if he did that he'd have to leave John without even getting to know him and that would be an awful shame.

John checked his watch when he got up the next morning it said fifteen minutes past eleven but that couldn't be right Sherlock had said he'd wake him up. This was just fantastic that basterd had completely forgotten about him John stormed out of the on call room in search of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock had arranged for the girl to get an MRI and a CT to search for the numerous tumours he was sure that they'd find covering her body. It explained the lumps and the excruciating pain he was almost positive she had a rare condition called Schwannomatosis which caused many tumours to develop around nerves. She was pretty far gone she must have completely missed the beginning symptoms such as numbness, tingling and weakness in her fingers and toes. If Sherlock was right there was no easy cure for this disease and the girl would have to have the tumours removed and hope they didn't develop again.

John was fuming he couldn't find Sherlock any where a nurse had said he'd rushed out of Johns office earlier this morning. Then when he went to check on Amy he discovered that both his patient and Sherlock were missing. He checked her chart hoping that someone had written in what was going on but there was nothing. John didn't understand why he even thought for a second that a man like Sherlock Holmes would ever stop to write anything down. He stored it all in that massive swollen head of his. John was going to kill him.

Sherlock smiled when he saw John walking towards him and then he looked again. John was angry really angry his fists were clenched and as John came closer Sherlock was pretty sure he was going to get one of those tightly clenched fists to the face. He began backing away "John did you have a nice nap?" John snarled at him

"Yes wonderful why didn't you wake me up?"

"I forgot" He answered and for his answer Sherlock got that fist in the face he was waiting for.

"I figured out what was wrong with the girl I had to organise a CT and a MRI so I just got on with that I'm sorry John" John sighed and Sherlock knew he was forgiven  
"Its fine so what's your diagnoses Doctor Holmes?"

"Schwannomatosis"

"Oh um ..." John looked confused so Sherlock resigned himself to having to explain and he did.

John had the girl sent to surgery straight after the MRI and the CT scan confirmed Sherlock's diagnoses and had the tumours that surrounded most of her nerves removed. John was ecstatic they had solved it so quickly "I could kiss you Sherlock Holmes that was incredible" Sherlock laughed at him "John I was wondering..."

"What?"

"Come work with me help me solve cases"

"Sherlock you don't need my help I practically slept through the whole thing"

"Your notes were the only reason I even took this case you know"

"What really?"

"yes so come work with me I need you John" Sherlock looked so serious there was no way he could say no "if you need me that much then sure I'll be your partner" Sherlock smiled at him and began dragging him away from the children's ward "first I'll show you my bench in the pathology lab an then you can see my office" Sherlock had become a excited child desperately trying to show John everything. He honestly couldn't wait to begin to work with Sherlock and John felt just as excited as Sherlock looked.

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Leave a review if you enjoyed.

So that's the end of their first case together I'm pretty sure I'm going to continue this and show them working together and have their relationship develop into something more. they'll have at least one more case after this one.


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